Abstract
- According to the theory of storytelling aesthetics presented here, storytelling creates pleasure by cuing spectators to mentally resolve disparate plot information. Hollywood generally makes resolution fairly easy by using time-tested storytelling principles, particularly classical principles of unity and causality, that ease mental activity and satisfy the desire for complete understanding. Easy resolution makes Hollywood movies spontaneously pleasing for mass audiences. However, Hollywood movies also exhilarate aesthetic experience by making plot resolution moderately difficult. The aesthetic pleasures of narrative exhilarate when cognitive activity is athletic and resolution distant but still tangible. Using abductive reasoning, viewers engaged by such films seek to unify plot information, repair gaps and inconsistencies, and sort out convolutions. As long as a movie does not violate our trust in its underlying coherence or put so much strain on our cognitive resources that we give up the search for understanding, then aesthetic pleasure will likely intensify with the degree of difficulty at resolution.